Skip to Main Content

Citation Management Tools

What is a Citation Manager?

Consider using a citation manager instead of typing bibliographies and in-line citations by hand. It will save you time. 

There are many citation managers out there. Some are free, and some require a subscription or charge for extra storage. 

Texas State University students, faculty and staff have access to EndNote that allows users to:

  • Export citation information from databases
  • Import information from other sources
  • Organize and generate works cited pages and bibliographies in a variety of styles.

Which Citation Manager to Use

There are many citation managers that you can choose from! This guide will focus on three citation managers: Endnote, Zotero, and Mendeley.
 

EndNote: 

  • Free for TXST students, staff, and faculty
  • Unlimited Storage
  • Extracts metadata and pulls in full text materials 
  • Export materials if/when you leave the institution 

Zotero: 

  • Free and open up to 300 MB online 
  • Free Zotero extension and desktop app 
  • Extracts metadata and full text 
  • Use with personal or TXST email

Mendeley:

  • Free and open up to 2GB
  • Online/web account or download to desktop
  • Extracts metadata and full text 

Other than the basic chart on this page, there are many comparison charts on the internet. NOTE that many comparison charts review Endnote Desktop, NOT Endnote Web. Here are some helpful places to start: